Quest to the LCS
by thatasiantoknow
Summary: 17-year old Cybele Tan is just another League of Legends-obsessed fangirl, who idolizes many professional teams and players. When she receives the opportunity to watch the LCS live, she readily seizes it. However, in a time full of excitement and hype, something happens during the event that crushes her confidence...until two years later, when her faith in the game is restored.
1. Chapter 1: Dreaming of the Future

**Chapter One: Dreaming of the Future**

 _There it was—the glorious, perfect airplane. The sun shone brilliantly off of the glistening metal, the windows were as clean as could be. The airplane that would take me to Los Angeles, California. The ticket to my future and fame._

 _I turned back and waved to my family, who were staring at me with a mixture of disappointment and pride in their eyes. Pride because I was successful at such a young age—I was only eighteen—but disappointment because out of everything else to choose from in the world of careers, I just had to choose gaming. But gaming was the only thing that I truly enjoyed and was actually talented at; when I was playing a match in League, the entire world around me would melt away, and I would feel like I was actually in the game myself. In one game, I would be LeBlanc, cloning myself to mess with the enemy and darting in and out to deal tons of damage. On another hand, in another game, I would be Thresh, reaching out and hooking other champions in so that my team could destroy them, as well as planting lanterns so that my allies could click themselves to safety._

 _I took a deep breath and started on the ramp from the airport leading to the plane, clutching my carry-on suitcase tightly. Thoughts started cycling through my head at rapid speed, further increasing my anxiety._ What if I play badly during scrims? What if my team doesn't like me? What if the plane crashes?

 _Besides, I've spent years on this quest—the quest to the League of Legends Championship Series._

 _And now I've reached the end._

 _I'm playing for a team in the LCS._

My alarm clock rings, effectively snapping me out of my dream and back to reality. I groan and reluctantly roll out of bed, my eye catching the posters plastered on my bedroom walls.

I groggily brush my teeth, wash my face, and change out of my pajamas, dressing up for the day in a classy button-down shirt and blazer, a black skirt, and white Converse. On my way out I notice out of my peripheral vision that one of my posters is slightly askew, and I immediately stop in my tracks and take the time to straighten the poster.

The poster is a picture of Lustboy wearing his TSM jacket, along with a TSM logo in the bottom right. I smile to myself as I readjust its position, and then I stop and take a look at the many other posters in my room, all League of Legends related.

 _That wall's just TSM merchandise...that's Faker's poster...oh, and Huni from Fanatic_ , I think to myself. _Then there's that Firecracker Jinx skin...Heartseeker Varus...and that epic Order of the Lotus Irelia skin._

My room's a geek's paradise.

Oh wait, correction: a geek's and fangirl's paradise.

I run out of my room, my jet-black hair flowing behind me, and arrive at the small but cozy kitchen. My mother's already awake, cooking breakfast and also preparing lunch ahead of time.

" _Zao an_ ," she greets me in Mandarin, setting a steaming bowl of sweet soy milk and Chinese donuts on the table. "Eat up."

I pick up a hot Chinese donut and attempt to dunk it in soy milk but fail miserably as the piece of fried dough nearly burns my fingers. I drop it like a hot coal and silently curse under my breath, shaking my hand in the air to try to alleviate some of the pain.

My mother clucks like a hen. "Idiot," she chastises, shaking her head slowly, as if saying, _How did I breed this child?_

A pair of chopsticks is placed in front of me, along with a plate. "You're welcome," my mother says before walking back to prepare lunch.

This time I successfully use the chopsticks and scarf down my breakfast, along with most of the soy milk. I sit back in my chair with a content sigh as my mother watches on.

"Stop eating so fast," she scolds. Then she breaks out in a smile and kisses my forehead, bringing me my backpack. "Why is this so heavy?" she complains.

I take the bag and head to the garage, opening the garage door and my car. Before I start the engine my mom shouts something.

"Hey!" she yells, catching my attention as I'm shutting my car door. "Have a good day at school," she adds, smiling. I smile back and wave, and then I'm off on my way to school.

I park in one of the empty lots and head towards the entrance of Keystone Senior High, where I'm immediately greeted by Micah, Jay, Kayla, and Lance.

"Yo, did you see the newest /All Chat video?" Jay says.

"I was gifted by my brother; he gave me Popstar Ahri," Micah says bitterly.

"At least you were gifted," Lance mutters.

"Star Guardian Lux!" Kayla exclaims happily.

I laugh and calm them down. "Everyone, shut up. Yes, Jay, I did see the video. Micah, Popstar Ahri isn't that bad—"

"Yes, it is!" Micah insists.

"Lance, I'm sorry, and Kayla, have you seen Lilypichu's stream with Star Guardian Lux?" I continue as if I hadn't been interrupted.

"Yeah, she's actually the best," Kayla responds with admiration. "Her boyfriend's the owner of CLG, HotShotGG."

"CLG!" Micah cries. "They'll win the LCS Summer Split!"

Jay and I scoff. "Ew. TSM!" we shout.

"TSM? More like FreeSM," Micah retorts.

"CLG? More like FreeLG," I mock.

"CLG!"

"TSM!"

"CLG!"

"TSM!"

"...SKT1?" Lance offers timidly.

"Faker senpai!" Kayla adds.

"Nineteen years old, yet he's already the best mid player," I say dreamily.

"Well, Huni did 1v2 him and he won, so," Micah points out.

I'm about to get into another argument with him until Jay clears his throat. "Guys, five minutes until we have to get to clubs," he says.

"We're all in the same club, man," Kayla answers.

"The League of Legends scrub club," Lance adds, chuckling.

"Yeah, but I'm the only scrub on the team!" I exclaim. "I'm not even level thirty yet!"

"Cybele, it's okay," Jay reassures me. "You know that we'll wait for you so that we can make a ranked team together."

I hang my head. "I don't know," I mutter. "I'm level twenty-seven, and you guys are level thirty already. I feel like I'm bringing y'all down."

Jay opens his mouth, but before he can speak, Micah hurriedly taps us all on the shoulder. "We have two minutes to get to our club; let's go already."

* * *

"Kayla, ward that bush; their jungler's MIA," I say in my headset as I ping.

"On it." Akali, Kayla's champion, scurries over to the bush.

We're in the middle of a scrimmage, fighting against an equally good team also in our club. Our team setup was me and Micah in the bottom lane with a Thresh and Blitzcrank combo, Lance in the middle lane as Yasuo, Kayla in the top lane as Akali, and Jay using Amumu in the jungle. The enemy's team was comprised of Braum and Tristana in the bottom lane, Ahri in the middle lane, Wukong in the top lane, and a Shyvana in the jungle.

"Cy, can you see if you can pull Trist or Braum in?" Micah asks.

"I'll see." I rush up past their minion wave and aim my Rocket Grab, or my Q. I manage to pull Tristana in, and Thresh dashes over to auto-attack. She ends up using her W, or Rocket Jump, and flees to safety, but we do enough serious damage to her that she's forced to recall.

"Nice, nice. Okay, here's the plan: I'll place a lantern, and when I do that, you pull someone in. Immediately after making contact with someone, right-click my lantern. That way we'll be able to drag the enemy farther, and it'll be harder for the champion to escape," Micah orders.

 _Swiftyspear is on a killing spree!_ flashes on my screen, and I congratulate Lance. "Nice, Lance."

"No big deal," he responds. "I counter Ahri, anyway."

"Lance, watch out," Kayla warns. "Shyvana MIA. She just tried to gank my lane—didn't kill me, but she came close. She'll probably be coming for you."

"Okay, Cy, ready?" Tristana is back behind Braum, as they try and get the CS. I quickly press the Tab button and see that she has an Infinity Edge and two health pots.

"Ready."

Micah runs a little closer to the two enemy champions and lays his lantern. I immediately use my Q and manage to have it come in contact with Tristana again. I spam my right-click button on Micah's lantern and manage to pull in Tristana close to Thresh.

I use my E and knock-up Tristana, giving Micah the opportunity to auto-attack and completely wreck her health. Tristana tries to W away, but at that exact moment, Micah presses his Q and hooks Tristana, dragging himself with her. He finally uses his E and delivers the finishing blow.

"Where's the Braum?" I ask.

"There." Sure enough, Braum's character icon shows up on the mini-map. He's near his turret.

"I think I can pull him in," I say.

"We might not be able to kill him, though," Micah warns. "He's a bit tanky."

"Micah, check my build," I respond.

Micah laughs. "Straight Ability Power?"

"You know it."

"Wait! Don't do it!" Lance says frantically into his mic. "They're all here at mid—Ahri, Wukong, and Shyvana. I think Braum might be coming too." An "assist me" ping shows up on the map.

"Coming over," all four of us say in unison. _Synergy_ , I think, amused.

What follows is a stream of chaos.

Jay comes in first and waits just a few seconds for everyone to catch up. When we're all there, Jay ults perfectly, stunning all four of the remaining players. I pull the Ahri in and knock her up, and there went most of her health. Lance rushes in, gets the kill, and then quickly finds another target. Micah starts dealing most of the damage, taking Shyvana down to half health. Jay throws his Bandage Toss onto Braum and presses his W and E, slowly draining Braum's health. Micah then comes in and attacks Braum, but Braum flashes out.

"Hold up," Jay says. Jay then runs up and smites Braum, slowing him. Micah is then fast enough to catch up to him, and he gets the kill.

Lance then targets Wukong, dealing tons of damage. Wukong manages to get away with little health, but not without being ignited first. Sure enough, another kill goes to Lance.

I manage to hook and ult Shyvana as Kayla rushes in, and she throws her kama and marks Shyvana. She then proceeds to auto-attack Shyvana, detonating the mark, and the kill goes to her.

 _Ace!_ appears on the screen as we all start to push the middle lane. "Good teamwork," I comment. "Let's push."

We're able to take the inhibitor and its turret before Tristana re-spawns, but she doesn't dare to challenge us. We then start on the base turrets, with Tristana desperately trying to poke, but to no avail. We're simply too powerful and tanky.

We take down both base turrets and the Nexus before the enemies' death timers finish. I type "GGWP" in the All Chat and the victory screen pops up, which I exit out of.

I take off my headset and rise out of my chair, stretching. I head towards our enemy team to the right of us and shake their hands, acknowledging that it was a good game.

"Hey, Cybele, you're level twenty-eight!" Kayla points out, gesturing towards my screen.

I look at my screen and smile. "One step closer to ranked."

 **Hey guys! Thanks for checking out my League of Legends fanfiction! Please note that I have not played all of the champions in the story, so I don't exactly know what all of their mechanics are. If anything's inaccurate, please tell me kindly in a review. On that note, please review or comment if you liked it, what you think I could improve on, etc. I'll see you in the next chapter!**

 **~thatasiantoknow**


	2. Chapter 2: Stop

**Chapter Two: Stop.**

"Guys, I'm going to start maining Blitzcrank," I say proudly as we walk to classes.

"Honestly, you're pretty good as a support," Lance comments. "At least, for a level twenty-eight scrub."

"YOOO," Micah shouts, laughing. "WHAT A SAVAGE."

I swipe Lance on the shoulder and he winces, rubbing his shoulder. "That hurt," he whines.

"Stop being rude," I retort.

"I'm sorry."

"Cybele, you could be Lustboy number two!" Kayla says excitedly. "And Lance is basically already Bjergsen, and I'm Dyrus, and—"

"Kayla, no," Micah cuts in. "We are not comparing ourselves to FreeSM."

"We are not comparing ourselves to that trash named FreeLG," Jay answers sharply.

"Can I remind you that CLG is actually doing really well—" Micah starts.

"Guys, please. Can we all agree that both teams are great?" Lance interrupts.

"No," all of us except for Lance say in unison.

"Ugh. Rude," Lance replies, throwing his hands up in the air. "Is it because I'm Korean?"

"Is it because I'm brown?" Jay mimics, making us all laugh. "Seriously, you're not going to get any sympathy if you say stuff like that."

"Okay, but we all know who really is the best player though," I say. "Faker!"

"Yeah, okay, I can agree with that," Micah mumbles. The rest of the group choruses in agreement.

"I feel like we always talk and argue about the same thing," Jay comments, amused.

"Faker is my senpai," Kayla says dreamily.

Micah puts his hand over his heart. "I thought I was your senpai," Micah says, obviously hurt.

"Nooo, Micah-kun!" Kayla adds quickly. "You're also my senpai!"

"S-H-I-P," Jay and I say together.

"Kaylah," Lance chirps.

"Stop." Kayla turns and shoots a glare at us, her eyes sharper than flint.

"Oh no," Micah mutters, hiding his face in his hands.

"Come on, we all know that it's gonna be a thing," Lance teases.

"It'll be cuter than Wildturtle and Lustboy!" Jay exclaims.

Kayla flips us off before returning to her locker and attempts to throw her history textbook at all of us. Luckily, we all quickly sidestep and manage to dodge the flying book.

"I'm sorry, Kayla!" I yell as I barely manage to dodge the notebook that she also throws at me. She doesn't pay me any mind, slamming her locker door and pushing past me to get to class.

"Now look what you've done," Micah complains. "You've made her mad."

"What, you're annoyed about that?" Jay crows.

"Is Kaylah real?" Lance joins in.

A faint blush covers Micah's cheeks. "Of course not," he tries to say coolly. "I just...want to see all of my friends happy."

"Bullshit," I deadpan.

"Wow, Cybele, you shouldn't curse," Micah says, attempting to change the subject. "It's not good for your health."

"Says you!" Lance scoffs. "You're made up of literal salt when you play League."

"Hey, not all of the time," Micah defends.

"Most of the time," I mutter under my breath.

"I heard that!"

"Students, get to classes," a teacher reminds us as she walks down the hallway. "And no running!" she adds.

* * *

I let out a faint sigh as I twirl my pencil around during math. The teacher's teaching us a new lesson, which I should probably take notes on, but I honestly do not care anymore. It's almost the end of junior year—no one else is paying attention anyway.

Instead, all I can think about is the LCS Summer Split, which is coming up in mere weeks. I absentmindedly doodle in my notebook, sketching a few small realistic faces of Lustboy, Wildturtle, Bjergsen, Santorin, and Dyrus. TSM logos also mysteriously show up in my notebook as well.

A small rustling noise attracts my attention, and a small ball of crumpled paper arrives at my desk. I look across the room and see Kayla, who's gesturing for me to read it.

 _w0w m8 pay attention in cl4ss!_ reads the note.

I glare at her across the room and she giggles, covering her mouth to stifle the sound.

Another note flies to my desk when the teacher's back is turned, and I open it. _but seriously though post your drawings on social media, maybe tsm could notice you oWo_ reads the note.

I make a face of disbelief and lock eyes with Kayla, shaking my head quickly. Kayla just smiles, nodding.

I tear a piece of paper from my notebook and scribble _lmao ok i'll post it on twitter or something but I doubt they'll notice me uwu_ quickly before crumpling it and kicking it across the room. Luckily, it reaches Kayla's desk.

Kayla slowly and quietly picks up the note and reads it, exchanging glances with me again. "They could," she mouths encouragingly.

I scoff and turn away.

However, the dream-hungry part of me relishes the thought of having TSM notice me on social media, but the other rational part of me quickly dismisses it. _They have tons of people commenting and retweeting their statuses every moment of the day_ , I think sourly. _I'm just one of them_.

I sigh and sink back into my dreams.

* * *

I hurry out of my car and close the garage door, racing towards the kitchen.

"Cybele!" my mother yells. "How was school?"

"Fine, thanks!" I shout, grabbing a cookie from the pantry and a small bottle of Gatorade from the refrigerator before heading to my room.

"Don't play too much!" I hear her say just seconds before I close my bedroom door.

"I won't!"

I empty out my backpack's contents onto my bed, grabbing my math, English, and history binders and textbooks. I check the time—6:15 P.M. _All right_ , I tell myself, _I can do around two hours of homework, and then I can play a game or two._

I take out a worksheet from my math binder and a piece of notebook paper, writing down the assignment from the textbook. I take the time to quickly skim over the contents of the worksheet and textbook; it doesn't look too hard, which is a relief.

The worksheet takes a few minutes to complete, and then I move onto the textbook assignment, which should be slightly more challenging than the worksheet.

My iPhone suddenly buzzes, distracting me from my focus. A text pops up on my screen.

 _lotionboii_ : kek

I grumble in irritation and respond.

 _cybellia_ : kayla pls I have homework

 _lotionboii_ : o rip

 _lotionboii_ : can you play though?

 _cybellia_ : ye probably after I annotate this short story

 _lotionboii_ : okie

 _lotionboii_ : o w8 did you post your sketches on twitter yet?

 _cybellia_ : no lmao

 _lotionboii_ : dooo it

 _cybellia_ : u wut

 _lotionboii_ : just do it!

 _lotionboii_ : don't let your memes be memes!

 _cybellia_ : wot

 _lotionboii_ : oops I meant dreams

 _cybellia_ : of course you did

I shut off my phone and quickly skim over the short story, _Lamb to the Slaughter_. It's quite...intriguing.

I turn on my phone and send a text over to Kayla.

 _cybellia_ : yo that short story is so gr9

 _lotionboii_ : o haven't read it yet oops

 _cybellia_ : we have a quiz over it tomorrow rip at you

 _lotionboii_ : fuuuck really

 _cybellia_ : ye

 _lotionboii_ : ok brb will cram everything

I snort and go back to highlighting my story.

After a bit, I open my math notebook and look at my sketches.

"I mean, it can't hurt, can it?" I ask out loud to myself.

I go on my art account on Twitter, which has already amassed a large number of followers. Twenty new notifications are sitting in my inbox and notification box, unattended to. I take a glance at it and see that it's mainly just retweets of my own statuses, along with some favorites.

I turn on the light and adjust my lamp so that I can achieve the best lighting and angles, along with a little filter to enhance the pictures' features. Then, I post the pictures on Twitter with a small caption saying, " _lmao what happens when you get bored in math class,_ " and I tag TSM's Twitter account, plus all of their players and Locodoco.

 _cybellia_ : okie posted my fanart on twitter for you bb

 _lotionboii_ : yey!

 _lotionboii_ : wow so good

 _lotionboii_ : im gonna spam tag them in comments

 _cybellia_ : pls no

 _lotionboii_ : too late

 _cybellia_ : sigh

 _cybellia_ : league and skype?

I start the call up and add Lance, Micah, and Jay.

We call our positions, start the game, and the rest of the world—including my rapidly buzzing phone—melts away.

 **That's chapter two! Uhhh this chapter was a ton of dialogue, lmao. Oops.**

 **Follow, favorite, and review!**

 **~thatasiantoknow**


	3. Chapter 3: The Noticing of Senpai

**Chapter 3: The Noticing of Senpai**

"Cybele, for fuck's sake, turn off your damn phone," Micah shouts irritably into his mic while we're all on the Skype call.

"Geez," I mutter, injured. "It's just buzzing."

"Nonstop," Micah adds darkly.

"At least it's on silent?" Kayla offers timidly. "I mean, it could've been worse."

"It's probably just Twitter notifications," I explain. "I posted some TSM fanart earlier."

Micah just scoffs.

"Okay, honestly, why do you hate TSM so much?" Jay interjects.

"Reginald," Micah immediately replies. "He's salt. Actual, literal salt. Everyone hates him. Even the TSM team hates him, if I'm honest."

"You're always too honest," Lance mutters quietly.

"Shut up, Lance."

I reach over to my bed and turn on my phone, scrolling through my abundance of Twitter notifications. "Yeah, it's just Twitter notifications," I state. "Probably nothing much. Up for another round?"

"Sure, but after this game I gotta study for my History test tomorrow," Jay says.

"Okay. Positions?" Micah asks.

"How about we all go a position that we're not used to?" I suggest. "Like, I can go top."  
"I'll ADC," Kayla pipes up.

"Mid," Jay calls.

"Jungle?" Lance says.

"Fine, I'll support," grumbles Micah.

We create the normal game and wait in queue. About half a minute later, a "Match Found!" icon pops up on my screen. I click the accept button and wait for everyone else to accept the game as well.

I look through my top champions and click through Irelia, Gnar, and Xin Zhao. "Ire or Xin?" I ask.

"Irelia," Kayla says. "You're better with her."

"Personally, I would prefer Xin Zhao, but if you're better with Ire, then use her," Micah adds.

I lock in Irelia and think about either taking the summoner spells Flash and Teleport or the spells Flash and Ignite. At the last second, I choose Flash and Ignite, thinking that the extra damage from the Ignite would help me early game.

This game, our champions and positions are this:

Me: Irelia, top

Kayla: Ezreal, ADC

Micah: Thresh, support

Lance: Warwick, jungle

Jay: Veigar, mid

Our screens are taken to the loading screen, where my ping goes from sixty to thirty three.

"Bless Chicago servers," I say.

"Ugh, I'm laning against a Vayne," Kayla complains.

I check the enemy team. "Hah, I'm against an Ekko."

"Destroy him," Jay says.

Momentarily, we're in-game, and I quickly level up my W, or Hiten Style. I take a Doran's Blade for the increased damage, a health pot, and a Warding Totem, and then I speed towards the top lane.

"Cybele, can you leash me?" Lance asks, pinging an "Assist Me" ping on the mini-map.

"Sure." I get to the Gromp's location, waiting for it to spawn. I pass the time by dancing and typing in the All Chat, "eyyy lmao let's all dance at gromp"

"Cybele, please," Micah says after reading my comment.

"You know you love it."

The enemy team's Vayne responds with a "LOL," and she adds, "gl;hf."

"Minions have spawned" pops up on my screen, and the Gromp spawns shortly after. Lance smites the Gromp, and I use my W and auto-attack the Gromp a few times before heading to my lane up top. "Thanks," Lance says.

I press my W again and last-hit the low health minions, looking for Ekko. I move my camera around a bit and find him running out of the jungle, most likely warding the bush. "Ekko warded top jungle bush," I say to Lance.

After a bit of farming, I level up to level 2, leveling up my Q, or Bladesurge. So far, the Ekko's just been farming passively, and has made no attempts to poke me at all.

After a little bit, I make it to level 3, leveling up my E, or my Equilibrium Strike, and I decide that it's time to go in.

I Q on a low-health minion and get the Ghost speed boost, and then I E and stun Ekko. I quickly press my W and auto-attack a few times, following Ekko to his turret. Just a few moments before he gets within his turret range, I Q on him and Ignite Ekko, hoping that the Ignite would finish him off. However, the Ekko uses a Crystalline Flask, but he escapes with such little health that he's forced to recall.

I farm for a few moments before moving on to the enemy top turret, using my W for true damage and some life steal. However, after only a few auto-attacks, the Ekko returns, this time with more health pots.

I come with a plan. I let him push deep into lane—in fact, basically to the turret—and I fight the minions, getting some CS. Right when Ekko's about to leave my turret because all of his minions are dead, I Q and E him, getting some damage and stunning him under turret simultaneously. With this, I press my W and auto-attack him, dealing some damage by physically attacking him and along with a few of the turret shots. The stun effect wears off when Ekko has very low health, and he tries to Flash, but he flashes too late. The turret had targeted him before he flashed, and I get the kill. "First Blood!" flashes on the screen, along with my character icon.

"Nice job, Cybele!" Kayla says excitedly. A few other comments of congratulations follow. "Now, let's just not throw."

* * *

"Leave me, leave me," I yell in my mic. "Main priority is Baron." It's currently thirty two minutes in, and both of our teams are fighting for Baron. Unfortunately, I had been singled out by the Vayne on their team, and my health was slowly dropping. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before my death, and the rest of the team should just be focused on the Baron.

"Try and do some damage to Vayne," Jay suggests. "That way, if they do take Baron, we can just clean-up."

"Don't jinx it," Lance mumbles.

With about half of my health left, I turn on Vayne and use both my Q and E, stunning her. I then proceed with the rest of the combo, pressing my W and dealing damage on her. Vayne tries to run, but my cooldown for my Q and E is so short that I just Q and E her again, this time using my R (ult), Transcendent Blades, to finish her off.

"The enemy team has slain the Baron!" pops up on my screen, and I'm momentarily disappointed. "All right, team fight!" I declare.

Jay manages to E and stun two champions within the perimeters of his walls, and then he nukes them with his W, Q, and ult. "AtomicPigz has slain an enemy!" pops up on the screen.

Lances rushes in and ults onto one of the other champions, stunning him. I rush in, use my Bladesurge ability, and use Hiten Style, but the enemy champion flashes out.

"Hold up, hold up," Micah says. Micah flashes and manages to land his hook, giving us the opportunity to attack. Sure enough, the enemy champion goes down.

At this point, we've taken down three-fifths of their team, and only two more people have the power of the Baron. "Not much worry for their Baron," Kayla announces. "What we need to do is wipe out the remaining two. They already have our inhibitor, and if they pass on the Baron power to their super minions, then it's game over."

"Speaking of that," Lance replies, "we might want to back."

I take a look at the mini-map and silently curse. "Shit, you're right. Everyone, B."

I instantly recall and after an agonizing eight seconds, I return back to the base. I rush over to the super minions, who are already getting one of our Nexus turrets. However, there are too many of them, and one of our Nexus turrets goes down.

"Ally turret destroyed!" says the game announcer, accompanied by the icon of enemy minions.

At this moment, the icons of the enemy team appear on the mini-map, showing that they're traveling in a group. "This might be GG," Micah says.

"Never surrender!" Jay cries.

However, even though we try our absolute best to protect the last Nexus turret, the turret goes down, just because of the sheer number of champions and Baron-powered minions. Just before the Nexus goes down, I type "ggwp" in the All Chat. Momentarily, the Defeat screen appears on my screen, and I continue back to the Home Page.

"Aight, fam, I gotta go now," Jay says. "Bye." He hangs up the Skype call, leaving us four behind.

"Should we end the Skype call?" I ask. "I mean, I gotta go, but I'm the one who made the call, so the entire call will shut down for everyone if I leave."

"Nah, it's okay. We can start it back up after you leave," Micah says.

"Okay. Bye," I say, and then end the Skype call.

I turn my attention to my phone and wonder why the hell it's been buzzing so much.

I open Twitter and check the notifications box and am overwhelmed with the number of notifications that I received: a whopping four hundred and seventy six retweets, comments, and favorites.

"What the hell?" I mumble to myself, looking at the statistics. Two hundred and three of those were favorites, one hundred and five were retweets, and one hundred and sixty eight were comments—and to make matters even better, the notifications just kept coming. My phone just kept buzzing.

I skim over the comments section and see that every comment has at least tagged all of the TSM League of Legends accounts once. I externally groan out Kayla's name, but inwardly, I'm screaming in excitement.

However, one notification comes in right as I scroll through some of the comments.

"Lustboy has retweeted your Tweet: yo this is fucking sick, check this out TSMWildTurtle LoLDyrus SantorinLoL Bjergsen Locodoco TeamSoloMid"

 _There's no way._

I check Lustboy's profile to make sure.

There's his Lulu profile picture with the TSM jacket, and his Twitter name is LustboyLoL.

He has 223K followers.

At this moment only one thought goes through my head.

 _Holy. Fucking. Shit._

 **Sorry for the wait on this one! Tiny bit of writers block. I think I know where I'm gonna go with this story now, though. Hopefully.**

 **Thanks for reading, and don't forget to follow, favorite, and review!**

 **~thatasiantoknow**


	4. Chapter 4: An Invitation

**Chapter 4: An Invitation**

"There's no way," I deny out loud. "No way!"

But the tweet is staring at me, right in the face.

Someone noticed my fan art.

Someone. Noticed. Me.

"HOLY SHIT!"

I frantically press the Home button and type a message to Kayla.

 _cybellia_ : hey kayla

 _lotionboii_ : hm

 _cybellia_ : would you mind checking lustboy's twitter

 _lotionboii_ : uhhh why can't you

 _cybellia_ : pls it's important

 _lotionboii_ : uh ok

I sit on my bed for a few moments and wait.

 _lotionboii_ : hoLY SHIT

 _lotionboii_ : he reTWEe tE d

 _cybellia_ : so it's not a dream ok then

 _lotionboii_ : im sO PROUD

 _lotionboii_ : DUDE YOU MIGHT HAVE THE ENTIRETY OF TSM NOTICE YOU

 _cybellia_ : what

 _lotionboii_ : he taggE d evER yON E

 _cybellia_ : oh

 _lotionboii_ : how are you so calm

 _cybellia_ : idek man I was freaking out earlier

 _cybellia_ : honestly I guess I still don't believe it

 _lotionboii_ : cybele this is amAZING

 _lotionboii_ : I knew you could do it uwaaah

 _lotionboii_ : imma text micah and jay and lance w all of this~

 _lotionboii_ : lmao now all you need is faker and skt1 to notice you eh?

 _cybellia_ : …

 _lotionboii_ : pls you have biggest crush on faker

 _cybellia_ : …

 _lotionboii_ : haha ok gj on your work!

My phone was still blowing up, due to the enormous amount of comments rolling in with messages of congratulations by being noticed by Lustboy, and most likely the rest of TSM. Everything was so surreal—I couldn't believe it; I was floating on air. A bubbly feeling started fluttering in my stomach, causing a ghost of a smile to appear on my face. Suddenly, life just got a lot more upbeat.

And I like it.

* * *

"Awesome job, Cybele!"

"Can't believe it, fam."

"Congratulations!"

Micah, Lance, Jay, and Kayla ambush me right when I get out of my car and step onto campus with shouts of congratulations. Overwhelmed, I take a step back, but Kayla throws herself on me that I quickly topple over, backpack first.

"Ugh, let me up," I squeak underneath Kayla's body, who refuses to move.

"When you get home, you'll probably have thousands of notifications because the rest of TSM noticed you," Kayla exclaims.

I dismiss it with a scoff. "Whatever."

Jay nudges me. "Are we going to get breakfast? The bacon's waiting."

"Oh, my God, they have bacon today?" I reply, pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah," Micah says.

I basically drag Micah to the cafeteria.

* * *

"And here we have Chandragupta Maurya, the first king of the Mauryan Empire," the history teacher, Ms. Smith, says while gesturing to a PowerPoint slide on the SmartBoard. "He expanded the empire two-thousand miles to politically unify north India. Now, does anyone know how he expanded the Mauryan Empire?"

A hand rises tentatively in the air, coming from a figure in the back. "Alan?"

"Military conquest," Alan answers with his slight British accent.

"Exactly right," Ms. Smith says with a pleasant smile. She turns back to the board and continues discussing the political, economic, and social aspects of the Mauryan and Gupta Empires of ancient India.

While listening, I rapidly take notes on my computer, pressing the keys at an incredible speed. Ms. Smith goes through each slide quickly and without much downtime, and throughout the year I've become accustomed to her way of steam-rolling through the units.

As Ms. Smith flips to a new slide, Micah looks over at my screen, copying down some of my notes that he hadn't gotten within that short period of time. Watching this, I cluck playfully. "Such a dumb kid," I scold in a weird accent.

"Stop," he mutters.

I sniff. "Stop being so Da-rude."

"Darude Dankstorm."

My initial reaction is to laugh, but I quickly cover my mouth with my hand and muffle my sound. Micah shoots a glare at me, and I stick my tongue at him.

"Okay, so don't forget—your test is in two weeks," Ms. Smith announces, eyeing the clock. "We will have covered all of the ancient empires by then—India, China, and Africa. Everyone is dismissed."

I save my notes and shut the lid of my computer, packing it in my bag. I sling my backpack over my right shoulder, fitting my left through the opposite strap. Then, I wait for Micah.

"Hurry up," I whine, shifting my weight impatiently from foot to foot.

"Why? This is our last period before the end of the day," Micah responds. "And this is also our free period, along with Kayla's, Jay's, and Lance's."

"I want to fit in a game of League."

"We have fifty-five minutes."

"We can do it!"

Micah sighs. "Okay, fine."

I text a group chat consisting of Micah, Jay, Lance, and Kayla.

 _cybellia:_ break room?

 _swiftyspear:_ sure

 _atomicpigz:_ yee

 _lotionboii:_ ayy

 _onigirii:_ no let's play a custom.

 _cybellia:_ kayla and I against jay, lance, and micah!

 _cybellia:_ w8 nah that's unfair

 _onigirii:_ no let's do it.

 _lotionboii:_ sT0p

 _atomicpigz:_ tbh fam idc

 _swiftyspear:_ yes let's do what micah says

 _cybellia:_ rip ok

And so the battle began.

* * *

Plopping my backpack onto my bed, I snack on a package of crackers, trying my best to not spill the crumbs on my floor. Wheeling around in my chair, I finally check Twitter, which has been left unopened because of the massive amount of notifications in my inbox.

I quickly scroll through my notifications, secretly hoping for notifications from TSM but internally preparing myself for disappointment.

"TSMWildTurtle has retweeted your Tweet: Very nice! Maybe come to Worlds and meet us at our booth? Would love to see these in person! :)"

 **Sorry for the extremely long delay. I (still) have writers' block, which I thought I had cured, but apparently not.**

 **Yeah, and it's short too.**

 **~thatasiantoknow**


End file.
